My Boyfriend bet me $500 that I couldn’t beat Elden ring in 6 months with little to no video game experience.

[u/lizzied23]

The rules of the bet:

1. No magic
2. Only Melee
3. No farming for runes
4. Have to beat the entire game by June, 6th, 2024

I am currently on the last boss of the game with 89 hours played. I hope the last boss doesn’t take me 5 months. 😂

[u/awoogr]

Just out of curiosity, why melee only for the extra challenge but then you can summon help?

[u/lizzied23 → u/awoogr]

Sorry, I meant I can summon spirits.. is that the same thing you’re talking about?

[u/Qzkago → u/lizzied23]

Summoning fucks with the enemy ai, makes it easier than a magic focused run

[u/firedancer323 → u/Qzkago]

What really fucks with it is giving a mimic tear shabiris woe and then unequipping it on yourself

[u/twiceasfun → u/firedancer323]

The value of spirit summons to draw aggro and give me a moment to breathe and heal and even mid-fight buff is very nice. But for the majority of the fight, I want the boss looking at me because I have more faith in my ability to dodge than any spirit's ability to tank. Though there could be some super tank summon that I just don't know about because I don't really mess with summoning much at all to begin with

[u/Ct12341234 → u/twiceasfun]

Mimic with great stars and the aow prayerful strike can solo most bosses

[u/twiceasfun → u/Ct12341234]

Oh I'm sure. I went most of my first playthrough not thinking much of spirit ashes because I didn't even try them. Once I finally did, I discovered that some of them are really really strong. Mimic tear was a champ because I had a bleed build so the extra source of bleed more than offset the increased resistance. And then I kept not using them because I wasn't particularly interested

[u/Synikul → u/Ct12341234]

When I was 100%ing the game last year, my last playthrough I decided to use summons for the first time. I decided to go with what people considered cheese on release, so I was full Moonveil cannon with a mimic tear that did the same. If this shit is post-nerf, I cannot even imagine what it was like back then. Most bosses second phases were just them groveling on the ground in a stagger animation before they died. And this is in NG+2, I'm sure Mr. Tear could've soloed them in +0.

[u/Romanmir → u/twiceasfun]

I have more faith in my ability to dodge than any spirit's ability to tank.

DE complements you on your ability to dodge.

[u/PotofW33d → u/twiceasfun]

You can equip Sharibri’s woe

[u/ORLYORLYORLYORLY → u/twiceasfun]

This (and maybe the deadly combo of ego and masochism) is the primary reason why I don't like using summons.

Fights are 100% more predictable and consistent in a way that lets you learn the correct dodge timings when the boss is targeting you the entire time.

[u/TatsumakiKara → u/twiceasfun]

Mimic with any method of healing: raw meat dumpling; a multihit AoW, like Prelate's Charge, with the Butchering Knife or Great Stars and the Godskin Swaddling Cloth; only healing miracles equipped. I might be missing something.

Dung Eater is a hugely tanky summon with defense shred.

Lhutel the Headless is very tanky, but sometimes loses aggro quickly due to her teleporting.

Greatshield Soldier Ashes summons 5 greatshield wielding, ghostflame pot throwing (this builds up frostbite) units. The greatshields alone make them amazingly good at stalling bosses that deal majority physical damage.

[u/atimholt → u/firedancer323]

I'm at the Haligtree for the first time. I just had the idea of combining Shabriri's woe with summoning Latena, and I'm thinking of using it on Malenia when I get there. I guess I ought to try the combo out elsewhere, as well.

Only thing is, I tried the Shabriri's woe + mimic trick with Astel, and it'd still sometimes attack me. In fact, it consistently attacked me on its second tail-swing in its two-tail-smashes attack. Makes me wonder if it loses interest in the mimic tear when the tear is staggered, or something.

[u/firedancer323 → u/atimholt]

It’ll attack you still if you were the last one to hit it still and if you forget to unequip it on yourself it’s just a wasted talisman spot. Using it with latena works really well too especially against assassins

[u/killing_and_dying → u/firedancer323]

I thought shabriri’s woe didn’t work on bosses? I must be misinformed

[u/firedancer323 → u/killing_and_dying]

You are indeed misinformed

[u/flame_surfboards → u/firedancer323]

And make sure you've got meat dumplings equipped. The mimic heals with them but doesn't get poisoned. Usually lasts the whole radabeast fight

[u/firedancer323 → u/flame_surfboards]

I’ve done this before as well, and if they have healing items and incants they use them